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Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Conservative Senators Want to Slash Medicaid Even More Than the Cruel House Bill

Here's to All the Women and Children Who Get
Health Care From the Program But May Not in the Future

A large number of health care providers and other decent
people were horrified by House health care legislation that slashed Medicaid
spending, spending which helps those who simply cannot afford health care. Now it turns out some Senators have upped the
ante in the ‘Cruelty Sweepstakes’ and are
trying to cut Medicaid bigger and faster.

Conservative
Senate Republicans are weighing faster and steeper cuts to Medicaid that could
drop millions of people from coverage and mark the biggest changes to the
program in its 52-year history.

And those conservatives currently in control of the states
want to make it more difficult and more humiliating for those eligible to get
benefits.

Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker plans to ask the Trump administration for a waiver that would
require some Medicaid applicants to undergo drug testing and other
restrictions. Maine Gov. Paul LePage wants work requirements and time limits on
coverage.

They aren’t alone. States including Arizona
and Florida
are weighing requests to impose similar changes such as work requirements for
enrollees. Those moves are separate from the health-care legislation now moving
through Congress.

Think about that one provision Maine has in mind. Term limits on coverage. In short, if you don't get well in a time period the government sets, that's it. No more treatment. Good grief.

The mind doth boggle at the cruelty, the hatred of low
income people and the tremendous damage such policies would do. And guess what, it won’t save money. Those people kicked out of Medicaid will
still get a lot of health care, just in an inefficient manner, with more
suffering and the bill being paid for in higher premiums for the rest of the
population.